this is the project ginko leaf card, from architette on etsy.
kyoto is the fall is one of the top destinations in all of japan. this is because of the brilliant fall foliage of the momiji, or japanese maple. people go 'momiji gari' which basically means 'leaf hunting.' last night i visited Hogon-in Temple, which is a sub-temple of Tenryu-ji in Arashiyama, which was lit up for the occasion. there were also many yummy wintery street snacks that were enjoyed!
jessica at zakka life posted a tutorial for how to make these lovely fall cut paper kirigami decorations. via CRAFT via SisterDiane.
i'm thankful to have this chance to live in japan, and for the many opportunities that i am so very lucky to have.
elena from the etsy shop odds and ends always creates amazing and inspirational felt work, and this scarf is gorgeous!
this handknit rainbow scarf is from namolio, doesn't it just look so snugly?
this project is from raspberry fairy on flickr, and i saw it in this collection of felt leaf garland crafts, which i heard about thanks to the long thread.
ok, this one is wintery, but they are wearing red scarfs! and they are soooo cute. they are made by jesse from all things small, which is her darling shop filled with wee creatures.
on friday i did some paper/card/stamping crafts with my students (i have a part time job teaching conversational english to japanese adults, mostly). these were the stamps i carved, which were super fun. they are carved from soft eraser-like rubber that is sold for that purpose, and i want to make more; it's such a satisfying and quick (well, depending how detailed you get!) craft.
halloween has become popular relatively recently in japan, maybe in the last 5 years, and it come as mainly a commercial event, where stores put up decorations and sell lots of pumpkin themed products. there's no trick or treating, and no pumpkin carving (you can buy imported american pumpkins at foreign groceries for $25, and japanese kabucha are too hard to carve, trust me. if you are in japan and feel the need to make a jack o lantern, i recommend using a turnip like they did in the original olden days). anyway, i had fun explaining the meaning of 'boo!' as opposed to booing an unpopular sports team.
i saw this project for felt mittens with knit cuffs on the purl bee a few weeks ago. i love the look of the combination of felt and knitting or crocheting, and this tutorial made me realize how easy it is to combine them!
the slippers on the left are felt, with knit cuffs, from this book, felt and fabric rendezvous, shown below:
and here's an example of crochet plus felt bottle covers, from this book, simple zakka and a bag of felt wool, show below:
check out this maple leaf felt coaster project from the long thread. it's still pretty hot here in japan, but there are signs that fall is on the way...i for one feel ready!
my contribution to thanksgiving this year. on the front left burner is my new (2nd annual) thanksgiving recipe–pumpkin pie crepes. i love them because it's a good way to use the extra pumpkin pie filling that i always have left over after making the pumpkin pies, and it's the perfect easy breakfast for a house full of thanksgiving guests, or a quick snack to keep everyone going during food preparation time.
i love thanksgiving. it's far and away my favorite holiday. this year, for the first time since about 2001, i am not organizing/hosting the meal. i'll just be making pie. and rolls. last year i was in japan, roasting tiny rock hens (quite tasty, by the way), explaining thanksgiving to my japanese conversation students, and giving them their first taste of stuffing and cranberries. i tried to explain the history of this holiday, and the difference between the myth of cooperation vs. the true history of genocide of native americans. but what i love about thanksgiving is the way we celebrate it–gathering with family or friends who feel like family, to share a special meal and enjoy each other's company.
i also want to share the work of a wonderful artist, reya. she created the felt acorns at the top of this post, as well as these lovely natural felt sculptures. her shop is here, and is full of beautiful works in a variety of media.
the vollen series by chadhaus.
and a dot tote from piano nobile hand prints.
Each sculptural bowl made by Seattle artist Laura Yeats begins with the discovery of the unique form that emerges from a familiar material: wood. Yeats uses reclaimed green wood from around the Puget Sound region, freshly cut trees that change drastically as she works. Each bowl is turned on a lathe, air-dried, and finished with non-toxic, food safe finishes.
i've been making hats and scarfs with my brown merino wool. i love it, so soft and such a warm natural color. these will printed with lovely patterns and available at the autumn open house this saturday...only 5 days from now!
here's the pumpkin i carved last week. i love the crafty and creative aspects of this holiday. last year i was in japan, and i organized a pumpkin carving party for my adult english conversation students, most of whom had never carved a pumpkin. for some reason (ok, because they don't really celebrate halloween, at least not the pumpkin carving part) orange pumpkins are scarce and expensive in japan. you can buy them from foreign import food stores for 25-30 dollars! so we experimented. i carved a japanese pumpkin, or kabucha. those are HARD to cut. but they make a yummy pumpkin pie. which brings me back to the photo of jack up there, waiting in the fridge. i baked him at 350 degrees for an hour, and then made him into pie. and it was tasty.
i listed these two scarflets in the shop. not sure if the correct spelling is scarflette or scarflet, it seems that people use both. the point is, it's a cozy warm wee scarf made of the most squishy and softest naturally processed merino wool, and naturally dyed. i'm not sure which color i love more, the indigo blue or the pumkin-colored madder.
i am so excited to share a collaboration that i have been working on with isabelle from piano nobile. piano nobile is a group of artists, designers and builders who create lovely work.
for this project, isabelle has been screen printing original designs based on antique letterpress type on my hand felted and naturally dyed scarves.
they are for sale over at the piano nobile etsy shop.
i'm loving my new design for a felt french press cozy. as winter is coming, it brings together 2 of my passions–felt and coffee! so i wanted to share my tutorial. if you don't want to make your own, i sell french press cozies in my etsy shop.
measure your french press. mine is 12" around and 7.5" tall. i measured from the table to the top edge of the glass. this design has the felt wrap around the french press and close over the handle, so the final 'long' dimension will be 12" plus 2 to 3 inches on each end, depending on your preference. that gives us a final dimension of around 17" by 7.5".
lay out 3 layers of wool (perpendicular to each other) in an rectangular area 24" by 12" inside your tray, or waterproof workspace. if it's easier for you to have a pattern to work with, you can make yourself a 24" by 12" rectangle out of inexpensive fabric (that can get wet) or netting, or bubble wrap. you can also line the entire tray with bubble wrap (bubbles up) before you start. bubble wrap increases the friction and will help the wool felt more quickly.
drizzle some dish soap over the wool.
and some hot water. we will now pretty much follow the same process from my felt 101 tutorial.
one exception: for larger pieces of felt, it's easier to keep the felt from moving around if you put down a layer of nylon mesh over the wool, and rub your hands on top of that. the water and soap will bubble through, which is fine. you don't need to do this, but it will help you get consistent results. you can use a mesh bag that you would use to wash delicate laundry in the washing machine as well. oh, you can also put your hand inside a plastic bag and rub the wool with that, the plastic bag will move more smoothly over the wool.
the nylon mesh doesn't want to felt to the wool, but you should peel it back every once in a while to make sure no wool fibers have caught in it.
for the short ends of the rectangle, fold in the loose fibers to make an even(ish) edge.
you can fold in the long edges as well, although we will be trimming them off. so the purpose of folding them over is less to make a perfect finished edge, and more to make a more sturdy edge to work with in the following steps.
after the felt is holding together, and you can turn it over, rub your hands in circles on both sides. roll it up and roll back and forth. you can use a bamboo blind or small sushi mat to roll it up with, just another way to increase the friction and help turn your wool into felt.
unroll and reroll in both directions on from both sides. remember that felt shrinks in the direction that you are rolling.
if your felt is getting cooler, you can add more hot water.
unroll and fold over onto itself and continue to work the felt.
when the felt has a uniform surface (not individual fibers that you can pick up), you are ready to cut the felt.
my final height (short dimension of the rectangle) is 7.5," so i cut it a little larger, 8" wide.
i like to have a cut edge on the long edges (that become the top and bottom of the french press cozy and wrap around) and leave the short edges (that fasten around the handle) uncut and more organic, which also leaves them a little bulkier due to the folded edge. if you prefer to have all cut edges, you can cut them all now. remember to leave the rectangle at least 5" longer than the measurement around your french press.
this is the cut edge. because of the nature of felt, the top surface and the bottom surface will be more felted, and when you cut through the felt, the edge is less felted.
so felt just the edge, the same way that you felted before, by applying friction. there may still be enough soap left in your felt to felt the edge, if not at more. rubbing the palms of your hands together perpendicular to the cut edge is my preferred method.
you can use your fingers too, that would just take a lot longer! once you see that the cut edge is becoming denser and more solid, you can rinse all the soap out. if you want, you can make the felt a little smaller by continuing to apply friction and rub the felt as before. this is called 'fulling.'
roll up the piece of felt in a towel to absorb extra water. depending on the wool that you used, and how dense your felt has become, you may be able to stretch and shape your felt a little bit.
i use 3 sets of snap: one below the handle, one above the handle, and one inside the handle. i hold up the felt to the french press so that both ends extend the same amount toward or past the handle. then i position the snaps for a snug fit. usually i start in the center, then attach the top and bottom snaps, checking the fit before sewing on each snap.
that's what it looks like with the snaps fastened.
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